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'''''Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World''''' (1977) is a controversial book on the early history of [[Islam]] written by the historians [[Patricia Crone]] and [[Michael Cook (historian)|Michael Cook]].  

'''''Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World''''' (1977) is a controversial book on the early history of [[Islam]] written by the historians [[Patricia Crone]] and [[Michael Cook (historian)|Michael Cook]].  

Drawing on [[archaeological]] evidence and contemporary documents in [[Arabic language|Arabic]], [[Armenian language|Armenian]], [[Coptic language|Coptic]], [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]], [[Latin]] and [[Syriac language|Syriac]], ''Hagarism'' depicts an early Islam very different from the traditionally-accepted version derived from Muslim historical accounts..<ref>[[Daniel Pipes]]. "[http://www.meforum.org/article/480 Lessons from the Prophet Muhammad's Diplomacy]". ''The Middle East Quarterly''. September 1999. Volume VI: Number 3. ''Hagarism, a 1977 study by Patricia Crone and Michael Cook, the authors completely exclude the Arabic literary sources and reconstruct the early history of Islam only from the information to be found in Arabic papyri, coins, and inscriptions as well as non-Arabic literary sources in a wide array of languages (Aramaic, Armenian, Coptic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Syriac).''</ref><ref>[[Oleg Grabar]]. Speculum, Vol. 53, No. 4. (Oct., 1978), pp. 795-799. ''What we know as Islam, the authors claim, was a Jewish messianic movement known, primarily in Syriac (but also reflected in Armenian and Hebrew) sources, as Hagarism, which moved into the Fertile Crescent, was heavily influenced by the Samaritans and by Babylonian Judaism, and at a certain point (presumably at the time of Abd al-Malik, ca. 690) shed its Judaicizing identity to become Arab Islam. This first change required the recasting of whatever memories or records existed of the movement’s birth into a more or less coherent form, a process which occupied much of the following century.''</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/04/28/d60428020635.htm|title=Hagarism: The Story of a Book Written by Infidels for Infidels|accessdate=2006-06-12|author=Liaquat Ali Khan}}''The book titled "Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World," questions just about everything Muslims believe as historical truths. It challenges the common belief that the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad over a period of 22 years (610-632) in Mecca and Medina. Instead, the book contends that the Quran was composed, possibly in Syria or Iraq, more than fifty years after the Prophet's death, projected back in time, and attributed to the Prophet. ''</ref>

Drawing on [[archaeological]] evidence and contemporary documents in [[Arabic language|Arabic]], [[Armenian language|Armenian]], [[Coptic language|Coptic]], [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Hebrew]], [[Aramaic]], [[Latin]] and [[Syriac language|Syriac]], ''Hagarism'' depicts an early Islam very different from the traditionally-accepted version derived from Muslim historical accounts..<ref>[[Daniel Pipes]]. "[http://www.meforum.org/article/480 Lessons from the Prophet Muhammad's Diplomacy]". ''The Middle East Quarterly''. September 1999. Volume VI: Number 3. ''Hagarism, a 1977 study by Patricia Crone and Michael Cook, the authors completely exclude the Arabic literary sources and reconstruct the early history of Islam only from the information to be found in Arabic papyri, coins, and inscriptions as well as non-Arabic literary sources in a wide array of languages (Aramaic, Armenian, Coptic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Syriac).''</ref><ref>[[Oleg Grabar]]. Speculum, Vol. 53, No. 4. (Oct., 1978), pp. 795-799. ''What we know as Islam, the authors claim, was a Jewish messianic movement known, primarily in Syriac (but also reflected in Armenian and Hebrew) sources, as Hagarism, which moved into the Fertile Crescent, was heavily influenced by the Samaritans and by Babylonian Judaism, and at a certain point (presumably at the time of Abd al-Malik, ca. 690) shed its Judaicizing identity to become Arab Islam. This first change required the recasting of whatever memories or records existed of the movement’s birth into a more or less coherent form, a process which occupied much of the following century.''</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/04/28/d60428020635.htm|title=Hagarism: The Story of a Book Written by Infidels for Infidels|accessdate=2006-06-12|author=Liaquat Ali Khan}}''The book titled "Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World," questions just about everything Muslims believe as historical truths. It challenges the common belief that the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad over a period of 22 years (610-632) in Mecca and Medina. Instead, the book contends that the Quran was composed, possibly in Syria or Iraq, more than fifty years after the Prophet's death, projected back in time, and attributed to the Prophet. ''</ref>

According to ''Hagarism'', the [[Arab]] conquests and the formation of the [[caliphate]] were a peninsular Arab movement inspired by [[Jewish]] [[messianism]], which, in alliance with [[Jews]], attempted to reclaim the [[Promised Land]] from the [[Byzantine Empire]]. The [[Qur'an]] would then be the product of 8th-century edits of various materials drawn from a variety of [[Judeo-Christian]] and [[Middle-Eastern]] sources, and [[Muhammad]] the herald of [[Umar]] "the redeemer", a [[Jew|Judaic]] messiah.<ref>The Origins of The Koran: Classic Essays on Islam’s Holy Book, 1998 [[Ibn Warraq]] ''A group of scholars influenced by Wansbrough took an even more radical approach; they rejected wholesale the entire Islamic version of early Islamic history. Michael Cook, Patricia Crone, and Martin Hinds writing between 1977 and 1987 regard the whole established version of Islamic history down at least to the time of Abd al-Malik (685-705) as a later fabrication, and reconstruct the Arab Conquests and the formation of the Caliphate as a movement of peninsular Arabs who had been inspired by Jewish messianism to try to reclaim the Promised Land. In this interpretation, Islam emerged as an autonomous religion and culture only within the process of a long struggle for identity among the disparate peoples yoked together by the Conquests: Jacobite Syrians, Nestorian Aramaeans in Iraq, Copts, Jews, and (finally) peninsular Arabs.''</ref>

According to ''Hagarism'', the [[Arab]] conquests and the formation of the [[caliphate]] were a peninsular Arab movement inspired by [[Jewish]] [[messianism]], which, in alliance with [[Jews]], attempted to reclaim the [[Promised Land]] from the [[Byzantine Empire]]. The [[Qur'an]] would then be the product of 8th-century edits of various materials drawn from a variety of [[Judeo-Christian]] and [[Middle East|Middle-Eastern]] sources, and [[Muhammad]] the herald of [[Umar]] "the redeemer", a [[Jew|Judaic]] messiah.<ref>The Origins of The Koran: Classic Essays on Islam’s Holy Book, 1998 [[Ibn Warraq]] ''A group of scholars influenced by Wansbrough took an even more radical approach; they rejected wholesale the entire Islamic version of early Islamic history. Michael Cook, Patricia Crone, and Martin Hinds writing between 1977 and 1987 regard the whole established version of Islamic history down at least to the time of Abd al-Malik (685-705) as a later fabrication, and reconstruct the Arab Conquests and the formation of the Caliphate as a movement of peninsular Arabs who had been inspired by Jewish messianism to try to reclaim the Promised Land. In this interpretation, Islam emerged as an autonomous religion and culture only within the process of a long struggle for identity among the disparate peoples yoked together by the Conquests: Jacobite Syrians, Nestorian Aramaeans in Iraq, Copts, Jews, and (finally) peninsular Arabs.''</ref>

== Synopsis ==

== Synopsis ==

''Hagarism'' begins with the premise that [[Western world|Western]] historical scholarship on the beginnings of [[Islam]] should only be based on historical, [[archaeological]] and [[philological]] data rather than Islamic traditions which it finds to be dogmatically-based, historically irreconcilable and [[anachronistic]] accounts of the community's past, and of no historic value. Thus, relying exclusively on historical, archaeological and [[philological]] evidence, the authors attempt to reconstruct and present what they argue is a more historically accurate account of Islam's origins.  In summary:

''Hagarism'' begins with the premise that [[Western world|Western]] historical scholarship on the beginnings of [[Islam]] should only be based on historical, [[archaeological]] and [[philological]] data rather than Islamic traditions which it finds to be dogmatically-based, historically irreconcilable and [[Anachronism|anachronistic]] accounts of the community's past, and of no historic value. Thus, relying exclusively on historical, archaeological and [[philological]] evidence, the authors attempt to reconstruct and present what they argue is a more historically accurate account of Islam's origins.  In summary:

<blockquote>Virtually all accounts of the early development of Islam take it as axiomatic that it is possible to elicit at least the outlines of the process from the Islamic sources. It is however well-known that these sources are not demonstrably early. There is no hard evidence for the existence of the Koran in any form before the last decade of the seventh century, and the tradition which places this rather opaque revelation in its historical context is not attested before the middle of the eighth. The historicity of the Islamic tradition is thus to some degree problematic: while there are no cogent internal grounds for rejecting it, there are equally no cogent external grounds for accepting it. In the circumstances it is not unreasonable to proceed in the usual fashion by presenting a sensibly edited version of the tradition as historical fact. But equally, it makes some sense to regard the tradition as without determinate historical content, and to insist that what purport to be accounts of religious events in the seventh century are utilizable only for the study of religious ideas in the eighth. The Islamic sources provide plenty of scope for the implementation of these different approaches, but offer little that can be used in any decisive way to arbitrate between them. The only way out of the dilemma is thus to step outside the Islamic tradition altogether and start again.<ref>P. Crone and M. Cook, ''Hagarism: The Making Of The Islamic World'', 1977, Cambridge University Press, p. 3</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>Virtually all accounts of the early development of Islam take it as axiomatic that it is possible to elicit at least the outlines of the process from the Islamic sources. It is however well-known that these sources are not demonstrably early. There is no hard evidence for the existence of the Koran in any form before the last decade of the seventh century, and the tradition which places this rather opaque revelation in its historical context is not attested before the middle of the eighth. The historicity of the Islamic tradition is thus to some degree problematic: while there are no cogent internal grounds for rejecting it, there are equally no cogent external grounds for accepting it. In the circumstances it is not unreasonable to proceed in the usual fashion by presenting a sensibly edited version of the tradition as historical fact. But equally, it makes some sense to regard the tradition as without determinate historical content, and to insist that what purport to be accounts of religious events in the seventh century are utilizable only for the study of religious ideas in the eighth. The Islamic sources provide plenty of scope for the implementation of these different approaches, but offer little that can be used in any decisive way to arbitrate between them. The only way out of the dilemma is thus to step outside the Islamic tradition altogether and start again.<ref>P. Crone and M. Cook, ''Hagarism: The Making Of The Islamic World'', 1977, Cambridge University Press, p. 3</ref></blockquote>

According to the authors, Hagarism was a heretical branch of Judaism followed by the [[Hagarenes]] or [[Arabs]] in the early part of the 7th century. To the authors, the surviving records of the period describe the followers of [[Muhammad]] as Hagarenes, because of the way Muhammad invoked the Jewish  god in order to introduce an alien [[monotheism|monotheistic]] faith to the [[Arab]]s. He is reported as doing this by claiming biological descent from [[Abraham]] through his slave wife [[Hagar (biblical)|Hagar]] for the Arabs in the same way as the Jews who claimed descent from Abraham through [[Sarah]] and thus as their ancestral faith. During this early period the Jews and the Hagarenes united, into a faith the authors loosely describe as Judeo-Hagarism, in order to recover the [[holy land]] from  the [[Christian]] [[Byzantines]]. In their analysis, the early manuscripts from eye witnesses suggest that Muhammad was the leader of a military expedition to conquer Jerusalem, and that the original [[Hijra (Islam)|hijra]] actually referred to a journey from northern Arabia to that city.  

According to the authors, Hagarism was a heretical branch of Judaism followed by the Hagarenes or [[Arabs]] in the early part of the 7th century. To the authors, the surviving records of the period describe the followers of [[Muhammad]] as Hagarenes, because of the way Muhammad invoked the Jewish  god in order to introduce an alien [[monotheism|monotheistic]] faith to the [[Arab]]s. He is reported as doing this by claiming biological descent from [[Abraham]] through his slave wife [[Hagar]] for the Arabs in the same way as the Jews who claimed descent from Abraham through [[Sarah]] and thus as their ancestral faith. During this early period the Jews and the Hagarenes united, into a faith the authors loosely describe as Judeo-Hagarism, in order to recover the [[holy land]] from  the [[Christian]] [[Byzantines]]. In their analysis, the early manuscripts from eye witnesses suggest that Muhammad was the leader of a military expedition to conquer Jerusalem, and that the original [[hijra]] actually referred to a journey from northern Arabia to that city.  

As time went on, the Hagarenes concluded that the adoption of [[Judaism]] and [[Messianism|Christian Messianism]] did not provide them with the unique religious identity that they aspired for. They also feared that leaning on [[Judaism]] too much, might result in outright conversion and assimilation. Thus the hagarenes contrived to create a religion of their own and decided to splinter off from their [[Judaic]] practices and beliefs. Driven by a quest for theological legitimacy they devised a version  of [[Abraham]]ic [[monotheism]], that evolved from a blend of [[Judaism]], [[Samaritanism]] and [[Christianity]], which became what is now Islam. The authors propose that Islam was thus born and fashioned from Judaic mythology and symbology, that is; the creation of a sacred scripture similar to the Jewish [[Torah]] - (the [[Qur’an]]), and a [[Moses]] like prophet; along with a sacred city of [[Mecca]] modeled on the Jewish holy city of [[Jerusalem]] adjacent to a holy mountain.

As time went on, the Hagarenes concluded that the adoption of [[Judaism]] and [[Messianism|Christian Messianism]] did not provide them with the unique religious identity that they aspired for. They also feared that leaning on [[Judaism]] too much, might result in outright conversion and assimilation. Thus the hagarenes contrived to create a religion of their own and decided to splinter off from their [[Judaic]] practices and beliefs. Driven by a quest for theological legitimacy they devised a version  of [[Abraham]]ic [[monotheism]], that evolved from a blend of [[Judaism]], [[Samaritanism]] and [[Christianity]], which became what is now Islam. The authors propose that Islam was thus born and fashioned from Judaic mythology and symbology, that is; the creation of a sacred scripture similar to the Jewish [[Torah]] - (the [[Qur'an]]), and a [[Moses]]-like prophet; along with a sacred city of [[Mecca]] modeled on the Jewish holy city of [[Jerusalem]] adjacent to a holy mountain.

While the full assertions of the book were controversial, the attempts to deconstruct early Islamic history have made this a groundbreaking and important work on early Islamic history.

While the full assertions of the book were controversial, the attempts to deconstruct early Islamic history have made this a groundbreaking and important work on early Islamic history.